Gas furnace



Jun 10, 1930. R, E FRASER 1,762,683

GAS FURNACE Filed Nov. 19, 1928 R. E. Fraser Patented June 10, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE RICHARD E. FRASER, OF STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO FRASER FURNACE CO1VI- PANY, OF STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA, A CORPORATION GAS FURNACE Application filed November 19, 1928.

sists essentially of a central fire chamber,

vertical cylindrical flues or drums to the sides of said chamber, which flues surround cylindrical air passages, gas intakes from the fire chamber to the drums at the bottom and gas outlets from said drums on the same side and at the top and communicating with a common main horizontal outlet flue. The intake and outlet lines are placed on the same side of the drums to form a compact furnace and the natural tendency of the gas is to pass directly from the intakes to the outlets, up one side only of the vertical drums. even heating of the drum walls is of course had and consequently an uneven and inefiicient heating of the air contacting with said walls.

A major object of my invention therefore is to provide gas battle or deflector means in the drums so arranged as to cause the gases entering the same to be positively deflected from directly passing to the outlet and so as to cause the greater portion of the outer walls of the drums to be heated by the gas flowing through the same from the intake to the outlet. This in turn causes the air to be more efficiently and evenly heated. This arrangement also prevents relatively small portions of the furnace pos- 4 0 sibly becoming overheated and warped.

A further object of the invention is to arrange the elements of the furnace so that condensation of the gases when they leave the vertical drums is avoided by providing is for the superheating of such gases, without the use of additional parts to accomplish this.

The furnace structure, including the bafiie means, is of such a nature that I am enabled to use sheet metal for the construction of Under such conditions a very un- Serial No. 320,332.

the entire furnace, thus obtaining a desired lightness without detracting from the chiciency of the furnace or lessening its life.

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensive device and yet one which will be exceedingly effective for the purpose for which it is designed.

These objects I accomplish by means of such structure and relative arrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the following specification and claim.

In the drawings similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several views:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the furnace showing one of the vertical drums broken out.

Fig. 2 is a vertical. transverse section on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary broken out perspective of one of the vertical gas and air passage units showing the positioning of the gas deflecting bafiies in the gas passage.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference on the drawings, the numeral 1 denotes the main fire chamber, preferably a rectangular member of sheet metal having in its lower end a centrally located gas burner 2 of suitable character. Air to this burner is taken in from a passage 3 leading horizontally from one end of the chamber in the plane of the burner. This chamber is preferably of greater length than width and of greater height than length.

Disposed along said chamber in spaced relation thereto and to each other, are vert-ical drums 4 having air passages 5 extending lengthwise therethrough and open at both ends. The drums and passages are preferably cylindrical, their lower ends being substantially in line with the upper edge of the air passage 3 of the chamber 1, while their upper ends are located some distance above the top of the chamber 1.

The drums are enclosed except for lateral flues 6 leading from the chamber 1 some distance above the lower ends of the drums, and similar flues 7 leading from the upper ends of the drums into a horizontal drum 8 which is disposed between said drums 4: above the chamber 1 in parallel and spaced relation to the latter. A single outlet flue 9 leads horizontally from one end of the drum 8.

To prevent the gases from passing directlyfrom the fines 6 to the fines 7, but instead acting to cause the gases to first pass to the opposite or outer side of the drums to heat the same, I provide a hori: zontal baflle plate 10 in each drum just above the corresponding flue 6. This plate fits closely between the adjacent walls of the members 4- and 5 which form the drum and extends substantially half way around the same in symmetrical relation to the flue 6. Vertical bafile plates 11 depend from the ends of the plate 10, also having a close fit with the side walls of the drum but terminating a relatively short distance from the bottom of the same. In this manner it will be seen that gases entering the drum from the flue 6 must pass to the bottom of the bafile structure before they can rise to the outlet, and such gases will then be on the side of the drum opposite to the outlet fine 7. The walls of the drum and air passage opposite to the lines are therefore efliciently heated by the flow of gases therethrough.

The arrangement of parts of the furnace positively prevents condensation of the gases. No condensation will in anyevent take place in the bottoms of the drums l,

since the gases are then very hot and the bottoms of the drums are further maintained in a heated condition by the head radiating from the sides of the fire chamber below the drums. The place where the tendency to condensation is the greatest is in the upper drum 8. The locationof this drum however is such that it is directly influenced by the highly heated top surface of the fire chamber, so that the lower surface of the drum 8 is maintained in a heated condition sufficient to prevent any' gas condensation.

The entire furnace is surrounded by a vertical casing 12 of suitable character, spaced from the drums so that air entering the casing through the side intakes 13 at the bottom thereof can flow around all the exposed and heated metal surfaces. The casing on top is of course connected with a single air outlet register or independent air passages as may be desired and as is common practice.

Though I have here shown the furnace as having two pairs of drums it will of course be obvious that a different number may be employed, While using a single heater drum and fire chamber, depending upon the size of the furnace desired.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that I have produced such a device as substantially fulfills the objects of the invention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferred construction of the device, still in practice such deviations from such detail may beresorted to as do not form adeparture from the spirit of the invention, as defined by the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A gas furnace including a fire chamber, a combustion chamber immediately above the fire chamber, a vertical air flue at one side of the combustion chamber and extending from a point approximately in the plane of the top of the fire chamber to a point above the combustion chamber, an enclosed combustion drum formed around the air fine, combustion inlet and outlet flues communicating with the drum at spaced points and on the same side thereof, the inlet flue leading from the combustion chamber into the drum at a point a considerable distance above the bottom of the latter, a baflle plate between the drum and air flue just above the combustion lnlet flue and extending part way around the air flue, and downward extensions on the ends of the baffle plate extending to points short of the bottom of the drum.

In testimony whereof, I atfix my signature.

RICHARD E. FRASER. 

